BATON ROUGE — The No. 10-ranked LSU men’s tennis team picked up its biggest win of the season Tuesday afternoon by upsetting No. 6 Illinois, 4-3, at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
For the second-straight match, James Cluskey came through in the clutch as he clinched the win for the Tigers by defeating Brandon Davis, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. The win is the fifth straight for the Ireland native and 14th on the season.
The Tigers (11-2, 3-1 SEC) have now split the all-time series against the Illini (10-4, 3-0 Big Ten) at four matches a piece. The Tigers have captured four 4-3 victories this season.
“We played extremely well in certain spots today,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “Our two team in doubles (Danny Bryan and Colt Gaston) really set the tone early on. In singles, Danny and James really played well and Jan (Zelezny) continues to handle himself well and in a professional manner. Beating Illinois is never easy and we knew it would come down to one or two points.”
The Tigers took the early lead by winning the doubles point for the 11th time out of their 13 matches. On court three, Kevin Dessauer and Zelezny had a strong showing in their 8-3 win against Davis and Jordan Knue of Illinois to put LSU ahead. The No. 5-ranked team of Bryan and Gaston wrapped up the doubles point for the Tigers by shutting down GD Jones and Marc Spicijaric, 8-5. The win is Bryan’s 100th of his career. Bryan and Gaston have won 25 out of their last 26 matches.
The Tigers struggled on court one where the defending NCAA Doubles Champions Kevin Anderson and Ryan Rowe defeated Ken Skupski and James Cluskey, 8-4.
In singles, Jan Zelezny gave the Tigers a 2-0 edge by breezing past Knue, 6-4, 6-0.
The Illini quickly struck back to tie it at 2-all by capturing straight-set victories on court two and four.
Bryan continued to play well in singles when he picked up one of the biggest wins of his career by upsetting the No. 12-ranked Rowe in straight sets, 7-5, 6-4. The win pushed the Tigers ahead, 3-2 and set Cluskey up for the clinch.
The Tigers return to conference play on Friday when they travel to South Carolina for a 1 p.m. match.
#10 LSU 4, #6 Illinois, 3
March 20, 2007 at Baton Rouge, La.
Singles competition:
1. #6 Kyle Anderson (ILL) def. #24 Ken Skupski (LSU), 6-2, 6-1
2. #44 Danny Bryan (LSU) def. #12 Ryan Rowe (ILL), 7-5, 6-4
3. GD Jones (ILL) def. Colt Gaston (LSU), 6-4, 4-6, 7-5
4. Marc Spicijaric (ILL) def. #111 Kevin Dessauer (LSU), 6-4, 6-1
5. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Brandon Davis (ILL), 6-2, 2-6, 7-5
6. Jan Zelezny (LSU) def. Jordan Knue (ILL), 6-4, 6-0
Doubles competition:
1. Kevin Anderson/Ryan Rowe (ILL) def. #14 James Cluskey/Ken Skupski (LSU), 8-4
2. #5 Danny Bryan/Colt Gaston (LSU) def. GD Jones/Marc Spicijaric (ILL), 8-5
3. Kevin Dessauer/Jan Zelezny (LSU) def. Brandon Davis/Jordan Knue (ILL), 8-3
# national rankings
Match notes:
Doubles (3, 2, 1) Singles: (6, 1, 4, 2, 5, 3)